If you go on the knee scooter, then you can’t push the grocery cart and keep your balance and/or scoot on the scooter.  If you go on crutches its even worse because if you push the grocery cart, then you have to let go of the crutches.  You get the picture.  In order to shop you have to have assistance.  This can come in the form of helpful children or maybe your significant other. Or, if you don’t have either, the store clerks, shoppers, etc. all are willing to offer advice about how to conquer this feat.

Rolling through the store to get groceries also causes another problem…if you pick up things to put in the basket, you have to scoot one handed….and reach the cart with your item without dropping it or tipping over on the scooter.  Sounds simple right?  Try this…pick up a loaf of bread and one other item in one hand, stand on one leg and hop to where you would drop off the item…the cart if it were there.  Sometimes your helpers have gone on without you and you have to catch up.  The one legged race then becomes aerobics as you take on skateboard speed rolling down the aisle catching up with the cart.  It can be so much fun!

Hobblemeister in my case is the result of a combination of limping and hopping.  It’s what happens when you start attempting to walk again after 11 weeks of “do not walk on it” mentality.  Physical therapy wants you to get on with the process of walking and bending properly all joints again.  Your brain has other ideas and it’s sort of like being possessed because you want to return to normal, but you cannot manage to convince your appendage it’s alright to start putting pressure back on it.  After all, you have convinced yourself that you cannot walk on it during the post op phase and as a result of the pain and discomfort you suffered prior to surgery.  You want to continue to protect the limb.  “It’s going to hurt so let’s not do this!”

It’s kind of like when your foot goes to sleep and you stand up to walk with the result being either falling over because you can’t feel it or tingling pain which makes it difficult to walk without some limp or lack of ability.

This article is about a term I affectionately call “Butt Scooting”.  After the surgery on my ankle was completed, I was released from the hospital 2 days later to return home and begin recuperating.  I had a large, heavy cast on my foot to protect it from damage during movement of any type.  I had incisions on both sides of the foot, on top of it and on the bottom of it where repairs had taken place to repair it.  A bone fusion, a bone graft, repair of a torn tendon and a repair to a joint that was no longer functioning properly were a part of the surgery that took place.  I had discussed with my doctor what the recovery path would be so I thought I had a pretty good understanding how much down time to expect as a result of proceeding with the surgery.  I was wrong, and here’s where I became Overcome By Events.

I knew there would be a period of not walking followed by physical therapy to reach recovery and using my foot again properly.  But it really didn’t register just how difficult this prospect would become. I think I thought, no biggie, I can do this because it will be a short period of time and the end result will make it all worthwhile.

I learned that I would have no ability to walk, put pressure on or use the foot in question until further notice.  During surgery more damage became apparent, and just how badly my foot had deteriorated became apparent.  The doctor told me initially 6 weeks no mobility and then I might be able to start walking with physical therapy.  I thought..”hmmm…I can do this, no problem.  6 weeks doesn’t seem too difficult to do.  I am pretty active and I will be able to do things again soon.”  After all, hadn’t I had fixed the problem?

When I arrived home, among the great many things I discovered I would not be able to do, one of the first things I realized was climbing stairs would be a problem I really hadn’t given serious consideration to.  I had a 2 story home with all bedrooms upstairs.  I can’t walk, put pressure on or use one limb that assists me in climbing stairs. Now exactly how did I think I would make that work?

Well, for the first 3-4 weeks I didn’t.  I spent that time gaining strength back and learning how to get around on a knee scooter.  Once I had enough strength to consider an attempt at 16 stairs to the 2nd floor, and yes, I did count them to figure out how many I would have to climb, I hatched a plan to overcome the hurdle.

The knee scooter is like a mini-walker of sorts.  It’s used for ankle injuries in place of crutches and it does allow a little better mobility and stability than crutches.  While the knee scooter is great for local access to ground floor activities, I needed another option to be able to climb stairs.  For lack of a better word for what I was about to attempt, the term “butt scooting” was coined as a staple in my household.  Here’s how it works:

After leaving the knee scooter and sitting on the stairs, climbing them is accomplished by backward pull-ups with your arms and butt scooting the rest of you up each stair pushing with your good foot.  Trust me humility is your best friend here.  Don’t take yourself too seriously here.  There is no modesty left during this process especially when your family is standing at the top of the stairs laughing as they watch you ascend the gauntlet.  Your clothing becomes tangled as you attempt to scoot and move up the stairs.  Your arms, if you aren’t used to using them in this fashion, start shaking and you begin to sweat. That heavy cast seems like a sand bag dragging your leg downward as you attempt to pull it up the stairs.

The first time I tried it it took me about 30 minutes.  It was like climbing Mt. Everest ….me out of breath and sweating profusely as a result once I reached the summit. But I did it!

I can now do the task in about 5 minutes.  My upper body strength has improved considerably as has my coordination to accomplish this task. So, out of this awkward event, has come better physical conditioning and a profound sense of appreciation for anyone who has to climb stairs with some sort of challenge in their way to doing it in a standard, normal manner.  Now 9+ weeks into recovery I must admit I am still butt scooting because my physical therapy hasn’t progressed enough to allow me to start attempting stairs.  

Recently, I was Overcome By Events.  I was handed my second humbling experience.  This one would be on a much smaller,  personal level.  While it was not global in nature, it has profoundly changed the way I see things from my little corner of the world. 

After spending more than one and a half years limping, in pain and in various stages of attempts to heal the problem, my doctor and I decided it was time to repair the problem permanently.  The problem…a torn tendon and collapsed ankle.

Here’s the lesson.  I knew it would be difficult to have surgery on my ankle, figuring on some down time to recover and get back to typical lifestyle as I knew it prior to the injury and during the following incapacitation from the injury.  After all, the boot, the limp and the pain were impacting greatly what I could and couldn’t do and I was a pretty active individual before I messed up my foot. 

What I didn’t take into account, was what it would take to recover and how many things I took for granted in my daily life before I had the surgery.  Once again I was thrown into a learning experience much like that of living overseas but now it directly impacted me personally and on a daily basis.  For this adventure it wasn’t just about the “things” that were not available on a temporary basis to me overseas, it was now about how to do something as simple as carry a cup of water without spilling it across the room to a seat. 

I have a new profound respect for anyone who finds themselves permanently disabled.  I thought I had compassion for people with disabilities of any type, but I now have a personal journey that I believe has allowed me to understand what it must be like daily to experience not being able to do the simplest things without someone helping you or without making a mess somehow in the process until you figure out how to make it work in tandem with your new abilities and/or capabilities. 

The stories I share continuing forward in this blog are not intended to make fun of anyone who has a disability, permanent or otherwise.  The stories are intended to be a chronical of a journey that has been filled with laughter, frustration, exasperation, and joy.